[Libreoffice-ux-advise] writer: link frames ...

[Christoph Noack]

Hi Michael, hi Olivier!

Am Donnerstag, den 27.10.2011, 16:18 -0200 schrieb Olivier Hallot:
> Hi Mike
> 
> Em 27-10-2011 11:45, Michael Meeks escreveu:
> > Hi guys,
> >
> > 	I only realised recently we have the 'link frames' feature in writer -
> > which is a bit silly. The context menu for frames is sparse (by LibO
> > standards), ~10 items.

Hehe, you mean since the recommended max. number is only 8 ? :-)

>  What do people think of adding a 'link' icon in
> > there - mirroring the frame toolbar function ? [ it would be an easy
> > easy hack ].
> 
> Are you talking about "previous link, next link"? If so, ok... I can 
> have a look into.

Personally, I propose to keep the context menu as it is, since it is one
of the very few which is rather clean. I had a quick look and approx.
0,6% frames seem to be linked (if I got the usage data right) - that's
more than I had expected, but a bit low for adding a context menu entry
(given the fact that only the "next link" can be set via the toolbar,
and the frame dialog is not too far away).

> >
> > 	Also - the link thing is quite annoying if you have text in a frame
> > already (as often happens). Thoughts on a 2nd easy hack to simply remove
> > the text, and append it to the previous frame in the chain ?
> 
> This one requires more skill than I have, but I will nevetheless look into.

If I get it right ... currently it is not possible to link a frame (e.g.
empty) to another one (filled with text). You have first to remove all
the text in the second one, then it can be linked.

If the easy hack would mean to simply link the frames and moving the
text (or more general: the content) towards the previous frame, that
would be great! But, please for both toolbar item and frame dialog.

By the way, the frame links visualization is ... aehm ... something to
think about. Sometimes its black, sometimes gray, sometimes ... strange
drawing effects.


> > 	If these are non-controversial I'll add them as easy hacks :-)
> 
> I have one more suggestion: the same link mechanism as in writer for 
> frames in Draw. It will make the life of many  desktop publisher a 
> breeze (such as those guys who edit on-line magazines [1] ).

:-)

Cheers,
Christoph